A Pocket-Sized Record Player Circa 1924

a portable record player

Before the iPod, earlier than the Walkman, there was the Mikiphone, a transportable document participant that folded up right into a case that you possibly can slot in your pocket. Invented circa 1924, this moveable phonograph was powered by a hand-crank and will play 10-inch records.

At first look, the closed Mikiphone seems fairly compact, simply becoming inside a handbag.

However, it requires some meeting, with its elements saved throughout the case, which, when shut, measures simply 11.5 cm in diameter and 4.7 cm in thickness.

The recording head and a two-piece Bakelite resonator needed to be linked to the foldout tone arm earlier than the shellac disc might be positioned on the turntable’s central pin.

This precision engineering feat was awarded first prize at a global music exhibition in Geneva in 1927.

Courtesy of the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, an illustration of easy methods to assemble the Mikiphone and play records on it: